In the semiconductor industry, Si(100) oriented substrates are used in most part because of the enhanced carrier mobility. Growth of GaN on Si(100) substrates would be of advantage because of easier integration of GaN and Si electronic circuits. it is known that growing GaN, on a silicon substrate is difficult due in large part to the large crystal lattice mismatch (−16.9%) and the thermal mismatch (53%) between silicon and GaN. Thus, some type of buffer layer or layers is generally formed on the silicon substrate and the GaN material is grown on the buffer layer. Generally, the prior art buffer layers are either complicated and expensive to form or do no adequately reduce the strain in the GaN due to crystal lattice mismatch.
It would be highly advantageous, therefore, to remedy the foregoing and other deficiencies inherent in the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide new and improved methods for the growth of single crystal GaN material on a Si(100) substrate.
It is another object of the present invention to provide new and improved methods for the growth of single crystal GaN material on a Si(100) substrate with reduced dislocation density and relatively simple to perform.
It is another object of the present invention to provide new and improved substantially stress free, single crystal GaN layers grown on a Si(100) substrate.